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Gov. Deval Patrick, in Worcester, announces more than $1 million in science grants for schools

patrick qcc.jpg

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick looks at a stuffed Wyvern given to him by Quinsigamond Community College President Gail E. Carberry during an event Thursday at QCC. Mount Wachusett Community College President Daniel M. Asquino is at right.
(John F. Hill, MassLive.com)

And six Worcester County high schools -- Blackstone Valley, Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science, Quaboag, Shrewsbury, Doherty and Worcester Tech -- will get between $75,000 and nearly $100,000 to fund new science classes and programs.

Patrick made the announcement at Quinsigamond Community College. He said the grants from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center were a continuation of his administration's strategy of investing in science.

"We are investing in people, we are investing in the future, we are investing in these students," Patrick said.

Before he took to the podium, Quinsig President Gail E. Carberry presented the governor with a bright blue stuffed Wyvern, the school's mascot.

Carberry said investing in science was a "quality of life issue." She told an emotional story about her daughter, who died at 30 giving birth to Carberry's grandson. The boy, she said, was fragile but kept alive by medical science.

He is now more than six feet tall and plays basketball, Carberry said.

The money will help the colleges update science labs more than twice as old as many of their students.

Quinsig is set to break ground in April on a new $20-million science and technology building. Carberry has previously said the school's 1960s-era labs are beneath the gym where its basketball team plays.

The new labs are scheduled to open in 2016.

At Mount Wachusett, the money will help update similarly old lab equipment. President Daniel M. Asquino said the current labs dated to when his school was founded.